In the interest of disclosure, this marathon is actually not on the coast, it is inland a bit. It starts and stops in the Florida Sports Park, a swampbuggy racing venue. It is an available venue with plenty of free parking and a license to serve beer. This is a small race and there were not too many more that 200 in the full. The full was two loops of the course. It goes out of the swap buggypalace and runs though a modern high-end residential neighborhood. I think the race is just too new and too small to command the street closures and bother down by the water. They will probably grow. They had good police support and the cops seemed pretty positive about the whole thing. The people in the pricey subdivision were less than amused. We were clogging up their bike paths and sidewalks.

Naples lodging seems to be pretty pricey. There were some really nice places that were really expensive. And there were some older urban motels, 4 - 6 blocks from the beach hat were only expensive.

Okay, it was in Florida, in February, and there were palm trees. We stayed one hour north on Sannibel Island. Sannibel really isn't on the cheap either until you have been working the yelp in Naples. But it was warm and sunny and their were palm trees and beaches. And this in February. There are all manner of restaurants and fresh fish. There is a national wildlife refuse with walking, boat, and kayak tours.

This is a sectioned Boston Qualifier. The shock of going from 7 degree to 70 really takes you down a notch. But we got some sunburn to replace our windburn.